


A Ride to my Heart

by Anonymous



Series: Storms & Fires [3]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Lingerie, M/M, Sharing a Bed, Sokka is the narrator, Threesome - M/M/M, Voyeurism, and they were roommates!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:41:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25866865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: This was really bad. No matter what, Sokka shouldn't let himself fall for any of his roommates. He thought back to his conversation with them. Were they really friends? In insight, Sokka was convinced Ren had sounded sad when he said they were. Zuko's reaction was hard to read. In fact, Zuko in general was hard to read. The scar on his face gave him an eternal stern look, and he wasn't the small talk type of guy.What if... what if they used to be lovers? Nah, the way they acted would be too weird between exes.Wait.Sokka clapped his fist against his palm, loudly thinking ah-ah! in his mind. They had a crush on each other! Of course they had! The longing in the air when they were together, the tenderness, the reluctant smile when they said they were friends, it all made sense! The more Sokka thought about it, the more excited he was. The romance, the yearning! And also, this meant that there was a solution to his problem: why not get both of your crushes together, so that you can let them frolic on the side and forget about them? Yes. That was a great plan!
Relationships: Sokka (Avatar)/Original Character(s), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), Zuko (Avatar)/Original Character(s)
Series: Storms & Fires [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1782391
Comments: 12
Kudos: 29
Collections: Anonymous





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a spinoff of my own canon-compliant fic: [A Song of Storm and Fire](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24201922/chapters/58298305), but it can be read on its own!
> 
> I loved Ren too much not to give him some more stories to feature in ahah! I don't know yet how many chapters this fic will have, but probably less than ten. Hope you enjoy!

Sokka's first day at college was a _ride_. Literally. A train ride. Okay yes, that was a terrible opening line, but let's move on.

Sokka's dad was crying, of course. Katara had dropped him off to the train station with her brand new car, and Hakoda had insisted on carrying his suitcase until Sokka finally got into the car and fastened his seatbelt. The train ride was four hours long, and Sokka checked for the address of the dorm and the number of the room and the location on the map at least thirty two times, and yet he felt like he had to check again. Was he anxious? Maybe. Just a little. It wasn't too bad. He had been on campus a few months earlier for an entire day, and he had explored as much as he could, making sure to remember every little detail he could find. He was almost going home, right! Well, soon he would be calling that place 'home', probably. He was excited. He would soon make friends, and party every week end, and stress out about the exams, and pull out all nighters writing boring papers, and everything sounded so exciting and new!

The train ride lasted ages but finally, he was walking down the street of the university campus, looking at the building that would be his second home for the next four years. He climbed up the stairs to the entrance, feeling so energized he carried his heavy suitcase like it was a bag of feathers. He asked a guy in the lobby if he was at the right place, and then took the elevator to the seventh floor.

_Oh spirits, so glad there's an elevator!_

Soon after, he was knocking at a black door, number twelve painted red on it, and he waited for a few seconds until a guy with a big scar on his face opened the door. He was neither tall nor short, had fair skin and long black hair tied in a ponytail, and his scar spread across his left eye, from the cheek up to the forehead and reaching his ear. Sokka realized he was looking too hard and shook himself awake.

"Hi! I'm Sokka!"

The guy knitted his eyebrows, or well, his only eyebrow and uh... scarred skin. He didn't say anything, only looking at Sokka from head to toes and back up.

"First year? Geography major? We sent each other two emails, one in May, one in July?" Sokka explained.

The door opened completely, and Sokka sighed with relief.

"I'm Zuko," the dark haired dude said without looking at him. "Your room is this one," he pointed left. "Here's the key."

Sokka caught the key that was thrown at him. It didn't feel like Zuko had an ill intent in throwing the key; just that he didn't really care for the new roommate. Well, to be fair, he had no reason to, right?

Sokka opened the lock, and noticed the door looked rather unconventional. Was it the original door? No, it must have been changed. Anyway, he got in, and started unpacking swiftly. Clothes nicely folded on the shelf, sneakers under the desk, new set of bedsheets put on the bed, toiletries... wait.

"Where's the bathroom?" Sokka asked as he came out of his room.

Zuko was sitting on the living room's sofa, reading a book and taking notes.

"Right next to your room," he replied without lifting his head.

Sokka opened the door to the tiniest bathroom he had ever seen. There was roughly a meter square of floor space, and the sink was hanging over the toilet seat. He couldn't even open his arms fully before touching the two furthest walls. The shower was large enough for half a guy his size. Okay maybe he was exaggerating on this one, but it was still insanely small. There was a cabinet behind the mirror, and it was choke full of make-up and hair products, looking exactly like Katara's side of the bathroom cabinet back home. It left Sokka wonder for a second, but he heard the door of the apartment open so he quickly squeezed his small list of toiletries--toothpaste, toothbrush, all-in-one shampoo & body soap, deodorant--all into the tiny space that was left in a corner.

Sokka left the bathroom and his heart skipped a beat when he saw who had opened the door. The person looked like a princess straight out of a fairytale, with long pearly white hair, gorgeous rosy lips and a flowery dress. Sokka blinked a few times, to make sure he wasn't dreaming.

"This is the third roommate," Zuko explained, still looking at his notes.

"Oh wow! So the prettiest girl on campus lives in the boy's dorm? Who would have thought!" Sokka blurted.

Zuko frowned slightly.

"I'm non-binary", the third roommate said simply, not sure how to take the compliment.

"Oh, uh! What pronouns should I use?" Sokka asked.

The third roommate smiled, relieved. "He/him or they/them, whichever you want. Zuko uses he/him."

"Okay, I'll go with he/him too then! Nice to meet you, I'm Sokka!"

"I'm Ren, nice to meet you too!"

Ren's bright smile made Sokka's heart tingle.

"... Ha-have you been on campus before?" Ren asked. "Sorry, I'm too nosy. But what you said... You sound like you know me."

Sokka blushed from ear to ear. "No! I, uh, well, yes I've been there. For one day. Earlier this year. And uh, I, uh, noticed you. Because of your hair! Yes! It's, uh, very shiny!" he stammered away, wanting more and more to disappear at every word he spewed out.

Ren giggled, a hand covering his mouth shyly. "Thanks!" he said, and sat down next to Zuko on the sofa. Sokka wasn't sure what to do next, so he turned around and as he was about to open the door to his room, he paused.

“By the way, why is there a mail slot in my bedroom door?” he finally asked.

“... We only had that one on hands," Ren said. "The guy before you broke the door, and we had to replace it. Sorry we couldn't find anything better.”

Sokka _oh_ -ed, nodding.

“Our doors are both too short, so everybody gets the short hand of the stick anyway," Zuko said. "Be careful with the noise.”

Sokka nodded again, and fumbled with the mail slot, to check if someone could watch him from the outside. Not that there was anything to see, of course. He wouldn't dare bringing back a girlfriend in there anyways. Not that he planned to get a girlfriend at all. He was going to be busy studying, right? No time for girls.

Ren pulled out his phone and sighed when he looked at the screen. “Dammit, Instagram deleted my pic again,” he said as he showed Zuko the notification.

“You know it’s against their guidelines,” Zuko said. “Why don’t you find somewhere else to post?”

“I have all my followers on Instagram already, they’re not going to follow me on another platform, it doesn’t work like that.”

“What was the picture?” Sokka asked.

Ren and Zuko both paused, lips tight.

"Uhm, a fashion picture," Ren finally said after a while. "I'm a fashion major, I make my own clothing. My room is the smallest, so uh, sorry if I flood the living room with fabric sometimes."

The living room was indeed full of sewing supplies, all tucked in the corner next to the window. There even were two different mannequins! One of them was wearing something that looked like a work-in-progress ballgown, while the other was cover in uh... cushions? To make it bigger, maybe? Sokka rubbed his chin, thinking he really had no idea what those were for.

"When is your first class tomorrow?" Ren asked, to make conversation.

"Philosophy, 8 am, building D, room 148," Sokka replied from memory. Of course he knew it by heart, he had spent four hours looking at his class schedule during the whole train ride.

Both Ren and Zuko winced. "You signed up for an 8 am class?" Ren said.

"I start everyday at 8 am," Sokka said.

Ren sounded like his breath got knocked out of his chest. "Oh dear!"

Zuko could do nothing but look at Sokka like he was a madman. He shook his head in disapproval, and went back to reading his notes. Ren turned to face him again, and lazily tangled his fingers with the end of Zuko's long ponytail while scrolling on his phone. The gesture was so tenderly intimate it let Sokka wonder.

"So, uh," Sokka said, sitting down on a cushion on the carpet, facing the couch, "How do you know each other? I mean, I'm just curious, I- Sorry- Uh..."

"We're from the same household," Ren replied. "I'm a foster child, and Zuko's uncle took me in when Zuko and I were fifteen."

Sokka _oh_ -ed again. "So you two are close friends, then."

Ren laughed, but it was a different kind of laugh than before. It sounded... empty, or sad, for some reason. "Yeah, you could say that."

Zuko glanced at Ren for just a second, and tightened his lips even more.

_Did I press on a sore spot?_


	2. Chapter 2

The next day, Sokka was so excited he woke up before the sun, and left as soon as he was ready, waiting in front of the classroom for over an hour. There was a loud yelp when he came back to the dorm during the afternoon. And by 'there was a yelp' he meant that he produced that yelp himself. Ren was almost naked in the living room, making something with a loud sewing machine. When he heard Sokka's voice over the sound of the machine, he stopped and turned around.

"What's the matter?" he asked Sokka, a worried look on his face.

Sokka was turning crimson red, and put his hands over his face, forcing himself not to look at Ren.

"Why are you naked?!" His voice came out like a sob.

Ren giggled and turned back, removing pins from what he had just sewn. "I'm making adjustments to the gown! I need to put it on and remove it so much, I can't be bothered to put my shirt back on each time."

Zuko was once again sitting on the sofa, studying. "You'll have to get used to this if you live here," he said in an indifferent tone.

Sokka inhaled sharply, and held his breath in until he was in his room, door locked. He took his pillow, buried his face in it and screamed.

Okay, let's backtrack a little. A few months earlier, Sokka had been on campus to check things out and make sure that this was the uni he wanted to study in. It was a beautiful sunny day and a lot of students were lounging around the campus grass fields, some playing soccer, others reading or hanging out with friends. The scenery looked straight out of a teenage rom-com. And of course, exactly like in a teenage rom-com, Sokka had tripped right in front of a pretty girl, making her drop everything she was carrying. Sokka hurriedly helped her gather her stuff and when he looked up, he saw the face of a literal angel, snowy locks of hair flowing over her shoulders, a smile as blinding as the sun, and a voice that could make any bird choke of jealousy.

If he had known that a few months later, he would be living with said 'pretty girl', he... wouldn't have had any idea of what to do but it would have made him crazy anxious! And that 'girl' wasn't even a girl! Knowing that fact had no repulsing effect on Sokka's heart, but it meant that it wasn't weird for Ren to be in his underwear in front of him, and _that_ was a huge problem.

Sokka clapped his cheeks a few times to wake himself up. He had to pretend Ren had no effect on him. He just had to. There was no way he was going to let himself get delusional over his roommate.

_We said no girlfriend, Sokka! Focus on your classes! No girlfriend or boyfriend or non-binaryfriend!_

He took a deep breath and stepped out of the room, ready to pretend that nothing happened. Oxygen stopped existing as soon as he saw that Ren was getting up to put the dress on, only wearing the smallest thong that ever existed. Sokka had to mentally gesticulate to catch his own soul before it left his body for good.

_Spirits, what did I do to deserve this suffering?_

***

After an intense lack of sleep, Sokka woke up groggily the next day and went to get some quick breakfast before classes would start. Ren and Zuko were awake already, doing some pilates in the middle of the living room. Ren was, of course, because he would never make things easier, wearing teeny-tiny booty shorts and a crop top. But what distracted Sokka the most—and I mean, how could you be distracted from that, right?—was that Zuko, the severe looking, definitely not cute, but still rather handsome other roommate, was wearing black leggings that made his buttocks look so glorious Sokka's appetite for soft buttery toasts vanished. That, that butt, would be the only meal on his mind for weeks on end.

_For fuck's sake, Sokka, calm down your hormones! What's happening to you?_

This was really bad. No matter what, Sokka shouldn't let himself fall for any of his roommates. That night, he swore an oath of chastity on his copy of collector's edition Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and went to bed at 9 pm, absolutely exhausted. He wasn't a morning person at all, and waking up the next day was the hardest thing he had ever had to do. He took all those 8 am classes to challenge himself to become a morning person, actually. Just have to power through it, right? But deep in his heart, he already knew this was bound to fail.

Classes weren't bad, but since it was only the first week, it mostly consisted of teachers introducing what they would teach during the semester, and Sokka allowed himself to space out a little. He thought back to his conversation with Ren and Zuko. Were they really friends? In insight, Sokka was convinced Ren sounded sad when he said they were. Zuko's reaction was hard to read. In fact, Zuko in general was hard to read. The scar on his face gave him an eternal stern look, and he wasn't the small talk type of guy.

What if... what if they used to be lovers? No, Ren wouldn't make small intimate gestures like combing through Zuko's hair with his fingers, that would be too weird to do to an ex.

_Wait._

Sokka clapped his fist against his palm, loudly thinking _ah-ah!_ in his mind. They had a crush on each other! Of course they had! The longing in the air when they were together, the tenderness of their gestures toward each other, the reluctant smile when they said they were "friends", it all made sense! The more Sokka thought about it, the more excited he was. The romance, the yearning! And also, this meant that there was a solution to his problem: why not get both of your crushes together, so that you can let them frolic on the side and forget about them? Yes. That was a great plan! And Sokka, being the plan guy, decided to investigate further as soon as he would go back to the dorm. Oh, and obviously, he had absolutely no idea what the teacher had said that day.

Zuko was baking something when Sokka arrived. He had a apron on, and was kneading dough on the counter.

"Ooooh, what are you making?" Sokka said, already salivating.

Zuko glanced at him and looked away, somewhat shy. "Bread," he just said.

"Can't wait to taste it!" Sokka said with a smile that reached both of his ears. Of course he noticed that Zuko slightly blushed. Maybe the dark stern guy wasn't as cold as Sokka first thought, maybe he was just shy? Sokka was usually great at analyzing people, so he settled on that conclusion, and decided he would force Zuko out of his shell, by some way or another. Patience was a virtue he knew he had. Of course he wouldn't dare stepping too far into Zuko's comfort zone, but he felt like just a tiny step inside should be okay.

Sokka hung out with Zuko all afternoon, talking about this and that but mostly asking about how things went around the campus. He learnt that Zuko was teaching martial art as a part-time job every Sunday, and he thought that maybe he should get a part-time job himself. Coffee shop? Baby-sitting? He would have to think about it.

"It's ready," Zuko said as he opened the oven. The delicious smell of baked bread had already flooded the whole apartment for quite some time now. Zuko put the bread on the table, cut two slices and took the butter out of the fridge.

"Careful, it's really hot," he warned.

Sokka was almost drooling already, slathering salted butter on the bread, paying no care to the burning sensation on the tips of his fingers. Zuko watched him take a large bite and then regret it instantaneously as he tried to blow air in and out of his full mouth of bread, fanning himself with his palms.

"I- is- really- ho-!" Sokka articulated, tears forming in his eyes. After a few seconds, when he could finally close his mouth and chew, a smile as large as the ocean formed on his lips. "It's absolutely delicious!"

Zuko was buttering his own slice and the compliment surprised him. He didn't know where to look, so he said "thanks" and avoided thinking about how a blush was spreading on his cheeks.

_So damn cute!_

Sokka's heart skipped a beat, but at this point he expected this to happen at any given moment spent in Ren or Zuko's presence.

"Where did you learn how to make such good bread?" Sokka asked.

"My mom taught me."

"You'll tell her your new roommate loves it!"

Zuko opened his eyes wide for a second, then he lowered his gaze. "... She passed away ten years ago."

Sokka's heart sank. He looked at the slice of bread in his hand, and got lost in his thoughts for a second, but then he gazed up. "I'll cook something for you then."

It took Zuko by surprise. He was expecting something like ' _I'm sorry_ ', or the usual awkward stuff people say when they hear about someone's passing. "There no need, I bake bread every week, it's nothing special."

"It _is_ special. Cooking a beloved's recipe _is_ something special. I'll cook you something my girlfriend used to cook for me."

Zuko couldn't help but soften. But a cold simmering feeling rose in his heart. "Did she..."

"Yes," Sokka said firmly, but with tenderness. "She passed away while we were in high school. She had an incurable disease since birth, the doctors said she wouldn't live past twenty. It was the Moon Disease."

"... That's rough, buddy," Zuko said before he realized what nonsense he was spewing out.

The door of the apartment suddenly opened. "I GOT A LARGE ORDER!" Ren shouted before he even realized Zuko and Sokka were sitting at the table.

Zuko smiled at him. "How much?"

"Two hundred dollars worth of lace panties!"

Sokka's brain fried up when he heard that. '???' signs were visibly popping above his head. Ren flew to his sewing table, and pulled out a box of patterns and a bolt of soft pink lace fabric from his stash.

"He started an indie lingerie brand last summer," Zuko explained to Sokka once he noticed the bewilderment on his face.

"L-l-lingerie?" Sokka stuttered.

Zuko snorted, but didn't feel like he needed to make any further comment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next update will probably take a while as I'm trying to focus on [A Song of Storm and Fire](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24201922/chapters/58298305) to finally (after six months of writing it) reach OT3 there. Thanks for your patience!


End file.
